FRANCE 24 spoke to Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes on Syria and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi on the disappointments of Iran's revolution. We also look at the rise of anti-Semitism in France and the love for "la Manif".

The Yellow Vest movement is falling prey to deep internal divisions even as it seeks greater legitimacy, with turnout at last week's protest falling sharply to just 51,400 demonstrators nationwide as opposed to 69,000 two weeks ago.

A spate of high-profile anti-Semitic incidents has shocked France, where officials say attacks against Jews rose by 74% last year – an alarming trend experts have linked to the spread of hate speech and the tension surrounding Yellow Vest protests.

Nearly half a million Spaniards crossed the border into France after Barcelona fell to General Francisco Franco 80 years ago. Many were detained in makeshift internment camps during a dark chapter of French history that has been all but forgotten.

On February 11, 1979, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei and religious hardliners established an Islamic Republic in Iran after the fall of the US-backed Shah. FRANCE 24 takes a brief look back at developments over the last 40 years.

FRANCE 24 sat down with Ben Rhodes, a member of Barack Obama's inner circle. He served during both of Obama's terms as speechwriter and deputy national security adviser. Rhodes reflected on Donald Trump's shock election win in 2016 as well as Obama's decision not to strike Syria in 2013.

Shirin Ebadi, an exiled Iranian human rights activist who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003, expresses her "disappointment" in the gains of the Islamic Republic, particularly in regard to women's rights.

Iran marked the 40th anniversary this week of the popular uprising that led to the fall of the monarchy and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, when the Ayatollah Khomenei became Iran's political and spiritual leader. Today, Iran is a society trying to find a balance between the religious tenets of the revolution and the demands of a young population that is hungry for social and political change.

France has made "la manif" into an art form, with a history marked by massive protests – both before and after the French Revolution – that are often successful in forcing those in power to give in to the demands of the street.

The self-declared "caliphate" of the Islamic State group is shrinking by the day. Some of the young people linked to the extremist group are being sent to a deradicalisation centre in northern Syria, where authorities hope they will be rehabilitated into citizens who can one day rejoin society.